The present invention relates to improvements in an escalator apparatus, and provides an escalator apparatus in which the distance (depth) from the floor at an end of the escalator where passengers get on or get off to a lower portion of the escalator body is reduced in size.
As disclosed in JP A 49-80790 and JP A 49-55083, for example, a basic construction of an escalator apparatus includes a plurality of steps connected to each other by a driven endless chain, thereby to transport passengers on the steps. In this escalator construction, the distance (depth) from the floor of the escalator where passengers get on or get off to a lower portion of the escalator body is determined according to the diameter of arc through which the steps rotate at both ends of the escalator.
In an example of a conventional escalator apparatus, the distance from the floor at the end of the escalator to a lower portion of the escalator body is 1000 mm, the length of a tread board of each step is 408 mm, the maximum thickness of the each step is 360 mm, the height of each step is 335 mm, the rotation diameter of a step backward wheel is 264 mm and a safety distance at each of up and down portions is about 20 mm. Further, the diameter of the driving sprocket is 654.36 mm, the number of teeth on the sprocket is 30 teeth and the number of pitches of the drive chain between adjacent forward wheel shafts is 6 pitches.
However, in the above-mentioned conventional escalator, it is impossible to reduce the diameter of the arc through which the steps rotate at both ends, therefore, there is a problem that the distance (depth) from the floor at the end of the escalator to a lower portion of the escalator body (hereunder, referred to as escalator thickness) is large.
An object of the present invention is to provide an escalator apparatus in which the escalator thickness is small.
A feature of the present invention is to provide, in an escalator having a plurality of steps which are connected endlessly and driven along a path, means for shifting the rotation locus of connection portions between steps at both ends of the escalator and the driving chain toward an end portion of the escalator from a moving locus of the chain.
Further, as another feature of the present invention, there is provided means for guiding the chain so that a moving locus of the chain draws an arc at both ends thereof, and step guide means for guiding the chain so as to extend, at both escalator ends, a straight distance between the connecting portions of two adjacent steps with the chain, which tend to be shortened by drawing the arc.
With such a construction, interference between adjacent steps will hardly occur even if the diameter of the arc through which the steps move at both ends of the escalator is made small. Therefore, the diameter of the path of the steps at the ends of the escalator can be smaller than in a conventional escalator, and the above-mentioned escalator thickness can be made small.
Further, another feature of the present invention resides in the fact that the escalator thickness is more than twice as large as the height of a step and less than twice as long as the length of a tread board in a running direction. By constructing an escalator in this manner, an escalator in which the escalator thickness is made small can be realized.